


Echo

by Coal



Category: Naruto
Genre: Clocks, Gen, Multi, POV First Person, Self-Insert, Shenanigans, dish soap, kill the snake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-10-13
Updated: 2016-05-02
Packaged: 2018-04-26 03:36:19
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 12,347
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4988692
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Coal/pseuds/Coal
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When undergoing Tsukuyomi the night Itachi slaughtered the Uchiha clan, Sasuke is made privy to a former life. He subsequently decides that revenge is stupid and he's going to try to make the most of his second life. He's too used to having a crazy and/or dead family.</p><p>A sort of self-insert as Sasuke in which he thinks education is important to becoming a good killer and that dish soap is a wondrous thing. I'll likely add more tags as I go.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Of places I don’t know

**Author's Note:**

> There are lots of stories like this, supplanting Sasuke, and they've all inspired me. I love those sorts of stories. Sasuke will be out of character on purpose.

It had to have been almost a full day into reliving it. It felt less and less like a horror each time I watched my brother slaughter our family. Every time I felt myself unravel just a little bit more but… it seemed like something was creeping closer every time as well. It was like with each death, something behind me would take one step closer—but the visage of Itachi was always in my sight and whatever was coming closer was hidden. I could sense it, but I couldn’t see it and it was cheapening the trauma of watching my family die. 

Itachi never noticed, if even it was really him, and that convinced me that this wasn’t part of the illusion. Whatever was coming for me was… all me. Maybe “coming for me” was a bad way to put it. It was more coming to me. Like it was being summoned. 

The world spun around me when it finally reached me. Itachi’s little near-genocide attempt on loop moved to behind me while in front of the scene turned… to a cramped motel bathroom. 

I’d dragged my sister into the tub and turned the showerhead on. I had no clue what to do at the time. Her lips were turning blue and before then I would have sworn that was some cartoon bullshit. Her head lolled back and she just sort of slide down once the water had lubed up the tiles walls I’d leaned her against. 

My knees felt bruised as I knelt on the stained linoleum to get a closer look at her face and to stupidly slap at her cheeks. She’d been conscious when I’d put her in the tub, but for the past hour she’d been just… slowing down and… not breathing. 

And at the time I was still high. 

I couldn’t comprehend then that she was overdosing. I’d always expected it to be some quick, theatrical event, not just this gradual thing that… I almost missed. I wasn’t so far gone that I couldn’t have called for help or started banging on the walls for the guys in the next room to come help us. 

But that would have been worse. 

That night had been horrible because one of the guys did come over “check on” us. If I’d made a fuss about her dying, then all four of them would have come over instead of just the one. It was a strategic move on my part—a futile attempt to ensure we, my twin and I, suffered the least. 

But it was Chase who had come in and he was the worst and after he’d dragged her out of the tub and broken one or two of my ribs he’d made sure to turn the volume on the TV up all the way and lock the door. 

That had been a much worse evening than the Uchiha clan being slaughtered. And suddenly that night was what was playing on loop. Itachi’s little stint—where he’d been crying, and wasn’t that telling?—was a very quick affair. My sister slowly dying because of my stupid idea to lessen our awareness and Chase actively breaking my mind apart had been the longest fucking night of my life. Of that life. 

So. 

I forced myself to stop trembling, taking the time to acknowledge it wasn’t the bite of the cold sheets making me shake, and sat up in the narrow bed. It was a spacious hospital room with an ANBU in a dog mask leaning against the door. So I was Uchiha Sasuke and not Wyn Briggs right now. Wyn Briggs died in Southport from shock or maybe blood loss. But. Sasuke. Okay. Reincarnation? Probably. It was cruelly funny that in both lives I had to deal with family problems. 

Slowly I flexed my hands and then drew my knees up to rest my forehead there and focus on breathing steadily. After some time, though it couldn’t have been more than twenty minutes, I lifted my head up to stare at the ANBU’s vest. I carefully reviewed what I wanted to say in my head just to make sure I’d speak in the language Sasuke knew. “My mouth tastes like vomit.” The ANBU guard didn’t respond. I had no idea how long I’d been awake—or catatonic, whatever. 

&

“My name is Yamanaka Inoichi. I’m here to talk to you about what happened.” 

I gently speared the baby tomato on my tray and kept my gaze averted from the interrogator. “In what capacity?” 

“I work in intelligence gathering. I’d just like to hear your account of things, if you’re up for it,” the man kindly, or hesitantly explained. “I’d also like to know how you’re doing overall.” 

I quirked an eyebrow and tapped the tomato against the tray a few times. “Aniki went nuts and slaughtered everyone in the compound and then when I came home he hit me with an illusion where I watched him do so over and over and over. He tried to,” I trailed my words off and then shoved the tomato in my mouth to stall. Itachi wanted to goad me into focusing on revenge but… I don’t know. Shit happens. I didn’t want to waste my second chance at living trying to be an avenger or some ridiculous shit like that. I needed to figure out how to word things, though. “He wants me to get stronger and fight him later.” 

There was a long pause for Yamanaka so I focused on eating my salad. “What do you want to do?” 

I wanted to hit a liquor store but that clearly wasn’t going to be an option for a long while so I shrugged. “If aniki was so quick to write off our family, I don’t see anything wrong with writing him out as well. Not in the killing sense.” I spun the fork between my fingers idly. It was easier to do with a pencil, but after a few seconds I got the hang of it. All the dexterity training for children here, for making hand signs, were really helpful. “He’s no longer worth anything. He made that decision about our family so I will make that decision concerning him.” I chanced a look at Yamanaka. “Basically: fuck him.” 

Yamanaka just stared at me, openly surprised. 

But then I realized I hadn’t really answered the question. “I want to finish my lovely salad here and then dig a deep pit in the middle of the compound and ritualistically burn a lot of shit.” I narrowed my dark eyes and looked to his face, focusing on his pale eyebrows. “And then I’ll carry on.”


	2. and stories that’ve been told

The day we, the graduating class of fresh genin, returned to the academy to be assigned to our teams I was… completely spaced out. First I was busy worrying about not being able to work well with my assigned team and then I was hit with the realization that it was all pointless to worry about and I started wondering if I was running low on the tangerine scented dish soap.

Uzumaki, the class clown, suddenly leaping up on the table and squatting in front of me, glaring, was enough to snap my attention back to the real world, but I still had no idea why he was on top of the table. His lips peeled back in a snarl and I ended up just staring at him like an idiot. For the life of me I couldn’t figure out why my social retardation set the majority of the girls in the class after me, but I suppose pretty idiots had their appeal in any world. 

“Naruto! Get your face out of Sasuke-kun’s face!” Haruno, who was standing right beside us now, screeched. Answering yells and insults to Uzumaki started up, but then Uzumaki was falling forward so I reached out and grabbed his shoulders, keeping him still and safe from falling on top of me. There was only more shrieking following that. 

So. Right. I blinked at him and then gently pushed him back. “You should get to a seat, Uzumaki-san.” 

He shook his head, like a confused dog, but then went back to scowling. He did get off the table, so that was good. I could only assume he was angry because the girls preferred me over the rest of the guys, but then I’d also accidently shown off too much during the times he’d failed miserably in class. None of it was intentional, really, but I picked up things really easy and a lot of things seemed more like review to me. 

“You will be assigned to a three man cell under a jounin and,” blah blah blah. I went back to zoning out until he got about half way through listing out the teams. “Team seven: Haruno Sakura, Uzumaki Naruto, and Uchiha Sasuke.” Huh. 

Beside me Haruno was cheering and on the other side of her Uzumaki appeared to be moping. He must really hate me, but for now that wasn’t my problem. Or it wasn’t until we took a break for lunch and he tried to choke me with some rope. 

I cut the rope with a kunai and turned around, grabbing his throat with my free hand positioning the kunai at his side. He looked completely surprised at the turn around and I was… just confused. “Uzumaki-san. I’m pretty sure you’re not supposed to garrote a team member.” Although it was entirely possible that we were supposed to kill each other. For a militia run village I hadn’t seen a lot of the violence I was expecting to see. Despite us being official soldiers for the village we hadn’t been trained to be killers yet. 

His face twisted back into the hateful look that was more normal on him. I released his throat and backed up a few steps. “Why are you so annoying?!” 

I blinked at him and tapped the kunai against my leg. “I guess it’s intrinsic.” 

“What?” 

“Um. It’s unavoidable. I’m just an annoying person, I guess.” 

Slowly, because he was pretty much just staring at me, he started looking more confused and… intrigued. “You’re actually really weird, aren’t you?” 

I shrugged. “Yes… may I ask why you wanted to kill me?” I motioned with my kunai to the pieces of rope on the ground and he rubbed the back of his head, embarrassed. 

“I wanted to tie you up so that I could impersonate you and get Sakura-chan to stop liking you.” 

“Oh.” 

“Yeah.” 

“Well… I honestly have no interest in her, so… I’m sure she’ll grow out of this fangirl nonsense and start paying attention to you rather quickly now. Since we’re proper shinobi now. Girls go through more obvious phases than guys.” 

Naruto frowned thoughtfully at me. “I think that’s the most I’ve ever heard you speak.” 

I shrugged again. “Since I dropped my onigiri, I’m just going to go wait in the classroom. If you want to go eat with Haruno-san I believe she was in the courtyard.” 

“Uh, yeah, thanks, bastard.” 

&&

Naruto trapped an eraser between the wall and the sliding door, a prank for our absurdly late sensei. “You can’t do that!” Haruno shrieked and I watched her and Uzumaki argue about it from the other side of the room. “Tell him, Sasuke-kun!” 

I stared at them as they both turned to me expectantly. If either of them thought I was leadership material for our team, we were going to die spectacularly. “It’s… just an eraser.” 

“Right, right!” Naruto folded his arms behind his head casually. “Just a little prank!” 

“Well,” Haruno looked between us almost suspiciously. “If you say so.” 

Interestingly enough, the eraser did hit the grey haired jounin’s head when he came in. Uzumaki wasn’t subtle with his pleasure at this. “You fell for it!” 

“Um, sensei, I’m sorry, I tried to stop Naruto, but…” Haruno put on an odd act, a little girl fishing for a good, harmless first impression of herself. 

I just watched them all from my seat idly. 

“Hm. First impression is… I don’t like you guys.” My teammates both gaped at the man who gave an eye smile undeterred. “Let’s go up to the roof for introductions.” 

“So, what do you want to know?” Uzumaki frowned at the jounin while the adult leaned against the railing around the roof. 

“How about… your likes, dislikes. Dreams for the future, hobbies. Stuff like that.” 

“Hey, why don’t you introduce yourself first?”

“Yeah,” Haruno agreed with Uzumaki. “You look suspicious.” 

“Me? My name is Hatake Kakashi. I have no desire to tell you guys about my likes and dislikes. Dreams for the future? Hm. Well, I have lots of hobbies.” 

After Haruno and Uzumaki shared an annoyed look, Uzumaki gleefully got on to introducing himself. “My name is Uzumaki Naruto. I like Ramen! I hate the three minute wait period for cup ramen and my dream… is to become Hokage! And then have all the people in the village acknowledge my existence! Hobbies… I guess pranks.” 

“Next!”

Shit, me. Alright. “I’m Uchiha Sasuke. I like… reading. I dislike nightmares. My hobbies are cleaning and reading and I don’t have any dream for the future. Maybe I’ll try to author a book in the future, but I don’t have any grand goal like Uzumaki-san I’m afraid.” 

Hatake seemed moderately surprised with my answer. 

Haruno was just disturbing with her introduction. She stared at me and wiggled about in her seat blushing only pausing when giving her dislike as being Uzumaki. Clearly she was going to die first amongst our group. 

“Well, that’s enough of that. Tomorrow we’ll start with survival training.” Delightedly, he explained that we still had a chance to flunk out. We still had to prove our worth to him or risk being sent back to the academy. “Oh, and skip breakfast. You’ll throw up.” 

Right. My teammates sat there, both looking horrified at the prospect of returning to the academy, long after Hatake had vanished. “I’ve found dry heaving to be less pleasant than actually vomiting.” They both swiveled around to look at me. After a few seconds I got the hint that they needed elaboration. “We should eat breakfast. If he plans to work us that hard, then we’ll puke and get back to it. Dry heaving just… goes on forever sometimes because you keep trying to vomit but there’s nothing there and your body is all confused. I guess.” They continued to stare at me as if I had grown a second head. “Perhaps we should, uh, go somewhere and talk about tomorrow? We can… plan as a team. Or something.” 

“Ramen!” Naruto stood up, pointing dramatically to the left. “Let’s go to Ichiraku’s! We can talk about who we’re going to kickass tomorrow there!” 

Haruno looked about to protest but she snapped her mouth shut with an audible click when I nodded. “After you, Uzumaki-san.” 

“Just Naruto, man.” 

“Then Sasuke.” 

“S-sakura! You can call ma Sakura, Sasuke-kun.” I nodded at her, still weirded out by how pleased she was when I gave her attention. 

“First name basis all around, then,” I stood up and moved closer to Naruto. Sakura didn’t take the hint and just moved closer to me. Weird. 

&&

“Miso ramen!” Naruto shouted and I grimaced slightly at that. 

“Shio, please.” 

“Um, just the vegetable ramen, please.” 

I scowled slightly when I found that they had placed me in the middle. Again, we were going to die in the middle of some ironic shenanigans. It was just destined if she kept thinking I was going to be the leader and sweep her off her feet or something. “So, about tomorrow. Should we… go over our strengths and weaknesses now?” 

“Hm, oh! I can make a lot of shadow clones!” 

Sakura actually leaned forward to look around me at Naruto. “Shadow clones? Those are really chakra intensive!” 

“Huh? They’re easier than regular clones for me.” 

“Oh,” I nodded absently. “You must have a lot of chakra, then. You were probably overloading the normal ones and making the perfect amount for these shadow clones.” 

“Yeah!” Naruto was so damn pleased with himself that… weird. I shrugged again. 

“I think you should focus on ninjutsu, then. Out of the three of us I’m the best at taijutsu so I guess I can try to focus on that, but I’d like to focus on a weapon at some point.” I looked to Sakura. “What about you?” 

“Um. Well.” She looked away from us. 

“You’d be great at anything Sakura-chan!” 

I looked back to Naruto briefly and, surprised, he looked back at me. I made a small smile before turning back to a very distraught looking Sakura. “You’re very smart, you’d pick up medical practices faster than us if you’re interested in that.” 

“I—yeah. Yeah, then I can patch you two up.” 

“We can add more things to our repertoire as we go,” I offered and by then the smiling owner was placing our bowls in front of us. “Thank you.” 

“On the house for Naruto’s friends.” 

“I, oh. Thank you.” 

Naruto literally snapped his chopsticks in his hands and swirled around to face me. I just narrowly stopped myself from flinching back. “I’m your friend?” 

“Well. Yes? We’re on a team together, shouldn’t we be friends…?”

He stared for a long moment and then nodded solemnly. 

Sakura leaned across me, holding out a fresh pair of chopsticks for Naruto and I swear the blonde looked like he was about to cry. 

&&

We arrived on time, each of us visibly nervous about starting our training, but then our sensei didn’t show up. Two hours went by with us awkwardly sitting there and he still wasn’t there. 

“Um. Maybe we should… warm up on our own?” 

“Oh, like our katas!” Sakura stood up, eager to do something. 

Naruto and I stood up as well, but I shook my head. “Let’s run a couple laps first and stretch. We should… loosen up, I guess?” 

“Be more decisive!” Naruto shouted, but I couldn’t think of anything to say and just smiled at him. “Alright! Let’s run!” 

&&

When Kakashi finally showed up we had been… clumsily trying to correct each other as we lightly sparred. I found I was the one doling out the most corrections to the other two, but Sakura quickly went from abrasive to Naruto into what I had dubbed lecture-mode as she got into the grove of explaining why we needed to pivot in such a way and so forth. We really weren’t being as productive as we wanted, but it did help us relax around each other even more than our shared meal did the day before. 

“Well,” our teacher began. “It looks like you three aren’t completely useless, so far. I’ve decided to keep two of you.”

We all froze and stared at him. 

“Two?” Naruto scowled deeply as Kakashi pulled out two bells.

“The two who can each get a bell off me before noon get to stay as my students. The spare gets sent back to the academy for a year.” 

“That’s fucking ridiculous.” Everyone looked to me. Sakura and Naruto were even gaping at me. I blinked back at them. “Either he already has a student whose other two teammates have died or he’s trying to trick us into fighting against each other. If it is the former, then I’d rather just bow out now and let you two proceed. The academy only teaches things one way and that way doesn’t cater to your needs,” I nodded to Naruto who looked surprised, “You’re clearly a kinesthetic learner and sitting in a classroom might be doing more harm than good,” and then I nodded to Sakura, “And you’ve clearly gotten all you can out of them already with that eidetic memory I’ve been suspecting you have. Being under a jounin who can devote more of his time to you would be the best case scenario for you guys. It’s not like I won’t be able to eventually catch up with you both.” 

Mostly under his breath, Naruto hissed out “Sasuke cussed!” While Sakura’s face started to turn red with her increasing anger. “If Sasuke is going back to the academy than so am I! We can try again next year!” 

Naruto was openly shocked, but only a few seconds later he was back to shouting. “Me too! I want to be a team with you guys! One more year at the academy won’t kill us!” 

I frowned at them both. “But I just explained why you two going back would be pointless.” 

“It’d be pointless for you too, bastard!” 

“I have family scrolls I can focus on in the interim.” 

“The what?” Naruto squinted at me, but Sakura was already perking up. 

She clapped her hands together with a purpose. “If we all go back to the academy then we can train together, in private,” Like a switch had been flipped, she shifted back into a demure persona and kicked at the ground, “With you, Sasuke-kun. If you don’t mind us learning from your family scrolls too?” 

“Education is education and it’s the right of every human being,” I translated absently and nodded. “I would welcome you both eagerly to the Uchiha libraries.” 

Kakashi cleared his throat stiffly. I raised a brow at him while Sakura and Naruto had come to stand closer to me. “Well, are you three sure about this?” 

“I am,” I looked to Sakura who was nodding vigorously and then Naruto who was just smiling stupidly at us. “And it seems they are too.” I looked back to Kakashi and pointedly kept a smile off my face as I spontaneously bluffed, “Feel free to interpret our later success as a big Fuck You, by the way.” I was living after dying and I had friends for once. My new life was never not interesting, at least. 

Naruto laughed and jumped back to point dramatically at Kakashi. “Suck it! We’re going to be the most badass team ever and you’re going to regret not taking us when you had the chance!” 

Sakura just clapped excitedly, but the almost feral grin on her face showed she was likely thinking some interesting things. 

Maybe we weren’t going to get each other killed in terrible, hilarious ways? This could be fun. 

“Okay, you all pass.” 

I startled and my teammates froze in place. “What was that?” I breathlessly asked. 

“You pass,” Kakashi explained and the whole conversation felt terribly anticlimactic. As an aside he said “And no gets tied to the log,” though his amusement was just barely there from what I could tell.


	3. We all are connected

Kakashi was a terrible teacher and he didn’t seem to mind that fact at all. Three days into our training and I felt my face had fallen into the deepest scowl my young face could muster at this point. Seeing as I only directed it to Kakashi, Sakura and Naruto had quickly started to copy me and so that morning I showed up even earlier than usual. All three of us genin had taken to still showing up at the prescribed time to try to work with each other, because Kakashi only ever had us running or sparring on our own, and I upended a bag full of scrolls onto the ground. 

“Are those Justus?” Naruto excitedly dropped to his knees before me and snatched one of them up. 

“No, I thought it would be best to hold off on specific attacks until we hammer down our modus operandi as a team and get the basics perfected. These scrolls are for stuff we can work on on our own, too.” 

Naruto stared at me blankly, but he was used to being confused around me. It didn’t help that I couldn’t translate modus operandi into their Japanese-like language. “Mode or method of operation. We need to determine what sort of tem we’re going to be and then figure out how to better ourselves into working together.” When Naruto’s expression didn’t change, I picked up an old clock that had been from the bag and handed it to him. “Do you know how a clock works?” 

“It tells time.” 

“That’s its end function, but do you know how it does that?” 

His face scrunched up further. “What does that have to do with working as a team?” 

“Pull the back off the clock.” I waited until he had and smiled slightly at the surprised gasp he gave. “Those are gears, or cogs, they work together to ensure the clock is functioning. If just one part in there isn’t working, the clock won’t be able to tell time. So, for us to be a team, we need to find out which parts we are that’ll work together. Just like those cogs.” Naruto made an interested hum, now running a finger over some of the slowly moving parts in the clock. “You can keep that if you want. I sort of have a large collection of them now.” 

“You collect clocks?” We both startled and looked up to see Sakura was standing over us. I had no idea how long she had been there, but she looked weirdly calm. 

“When my clan was wiped out I went through all the houses and made piles of stuff—and have thusly become a pack rat with certain things. What I deemed useless I donated or burned in a pique, but, yeah. It was part of my grieving process I guess,” I smiled, bemused at myself and at how they both gave me curious looks at my explanation. “So, uh, yeah, I have a shit ton of clocks right now. And books. And dish soap.” 

Sakura sat down beside us, brushing her skirt as she did. “Dish soap?” She was fighting to not laugh at me. 

“I have a thing about dish soap,” I shrugged. “I use it on tiles a lot. But not so much on dishes. I hate doing dishes.” 

“You’re pretty weird,” Naruto observed, squawking when Sakura lightly punched him in the arm. 

“Everyone has weird quirks. I just have no shame about mine,” I spread my arms out like I was proud of this and smiled when Naruto laughed even harder at that. Even Sakura looked amused. “Besides, our sensei has been openly reading porn in public. I really can’t feel embarrassed about anything I do after being privy to that.” 

“What!” It was the first time I had seen Sakura so openly furious. 

“Those books, they’re all porn books.” She shrieked nonsensically at that and I quickly shoved one of the scrolls into her hands. “This one is a basic fighting form for Uchiha women. Lots of feints and manipulating how you’re perceived. The focus from what I saw was on flexibility and drawing an opponent closer to either hit them with a genjutsu or burn them. A lot of these scrolls reference each other in that regard, but like I told Naruto I’m not bringing out any of the actual jutsu scrolls until we get this stuff down.” 

“Me! Me! What about me?” Naruto, who was still holding the clock, gently from what I could see, held out his free hand expectantly. 

I sifted through the scrolls until I found one. “Here. This one is about chakra control and some advanced exercises for it. A lot of the taijutsu scrolls geared towards heavy-hitters reference this one, like where to put your focus when performing a certain jutsu or ploy.” Naruto looked confused, but still interested and was already unrolling the scroll to look through it. I had also added simplified notes and some doodles for the movements described, but Naruto didn’t know my handwriting so I didn’t need to worry there. For Sakura’s first scroll I only scribbled in further references to other scrolls. In truth a lot of the references between the scrolls was my own doing, but, again, they didn’t need to know that. 

Perhaps I really had too much free time on my hands. 

“Anyway, I think we should all start doing yoga.” 

“What’s yoga?” 

I was openly surprised Sakura had asked that. But then, I hadn’t actually found anything on yoga in this world. My sister and mother had been obsessed with it in my first life. Though my sister had been a fan of anything to distract herself from the fact that our family were criminals. “It’s sort of like meditation and katas mixed. My mother taught me.” And that wasn’t really a lie. “Doing actual katas isn’t always relaxing after all, the repetition is more about focus and warming the body up, but yoga is more like a cool down or alternative meditation.” 

“You’re a good teacher,” Sakura absently remarked and I scratched at the back of my neck. 

“Ranting and repetition give the illusion of wisdom and charisma.” 

Sakura snorted indelicately at that but most of her focus seemed to still be on the scroll. “Repetition is the key to a good speech, yes, but you put in the effort to break things down more than you really need to.” 

“Do I now?” 

She smiled over the top of the scroll. “I recognize your handwriting, Sasuke-kun.” 

That was, slightly, stalkerish, but. Well. Moving on. “We need to figure out what sort of team we are.” 

Naruto hummed thoughtfully, his scroll open in his lap still, but he was focused on us now. “Lots of chakra, lots of skill. We’re the best team of those that graduated, right?” 

That was a good start. “More like we have the most potential,” I trailed off, considering Naruto’s words. “More assassin stuff, maybe? We go in with Naruto as the tank, with us covering the sides and luring targets where we want, or attacking while distracted. I mean we’re definitely not up for information gathering. And Hatake Kakashi is a well-known tracker and fighter.” 

Sakura carefully rolled up her scroll. “We’d be going after high-end targets.” 

“If we manage to become strong enough and capable with each other.” 

Naruto frowned, but for once he didn’t look at all confused. “Do teams always stick together? We won’t be going after big targets while we’re still genin.” He was openly disgruntled over that. The chore-missions we were doing had put a lot of things into perspective for him. 

“We’re going to stay together,” Sakura looked between us males with a very firm look. “We’re going to be greater than the Sannin.” 

“Who?” 

“The Legendary Sannin were a team of formally highly respected Konoha ninja.” Sakura seemed startled at my explanation of them and I shrugged at her. “One defected after being caught experimenting on humans and another is drinking and gambling across the Elemental Nations. The third is likewise never in the village. Saying they’re still highly respected is a bit difficult, skill aside.” 

“Then we’ll be better,” Naruto easily decided for us. 

“We’ll become renowned like sensei, but as a unit instead of an individual,” Sakura proudly added. 

Naruto went back to being confused. “Can you guys stop using words I don’t know? Like, all the fucking time.” 

“Renowned means famous.” I wiped my mouth wearily. If I thought for one second Naruto would have the patience to read through a dictionary I would have given him one of mine. “I think we should go over this stuff and then after we do our usual sparring and chore for the day, we head back to my place for food and we can focus more on the scrolls I pulled out for us.” 

Sakura leaned over and started looking at the labels on the rest of the scrolls, surprised at my choices. “These aren’t shinobi scrolls.” 

“Tactics, psychology, philosophy, anatomy—of course they’re pertinent.” At Naruto’s growl, I smiled. “Pertaining to, related, important to.” I picked up the freshest looking scroll, one that I had written myself, mostly full of half remembered proverbs and tales with useful lessons. “The more you read and learn, the less your adversary will know.” 

“That makes no sense.” 

“It’s a matter of perspective, Naruto.” 

Sakura rolled her eyes at us. “I do get that they’re important, it’s just going to take us a while to go through all this.”

“My doors are always open. These scrolls can be borrowed and read through at any time. There is likewise a public library,” I listed off the facts absently, my tone seeming to both annoy and calm Naruto. “We’re going to be a team for a while. If we have our way, for a very long time. It’s better to improve and use everything we can to our advantage.” 

“So we can be a really good clock!” 

Sakura and I both looked to Naruto blankly, but he looked extremely proud of his analogy, so after a second we both ended up smiling and nodding at him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter will be the start of the Wave Arc. These first three chapters were more... set up, I guess.


	4. please take notice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Huisna gave me some great suggestions so I’m using some in this chapter. (Thank you again!)

“What is a tank?” 

It took a lot of discipline to not make a face at Kakashi’s question. “When did I say that?” Sakura and Naruto were still inside, sorting out their batches of the clothing inventory we were tasked with. The old woman who ran the store was more inclined to let Kakashi and I stand within view of the shop window, unlike my teammates. I assumed it was a political thing. There was nothing for us to do now but wait about awkwardly for them to be done.

“Nine days ago.” 

At that I couldn’t resist raising a brow. “When I brought the scrolls first... ah. In reference to Naruto’s role, yes. A tank is,” I paused, just then realizing how hard it would be to describe. I decided then to focus on how I meant it. “Something that can take a lot of hits and dole out strong hits as well, but lacking subtly. It’s something you send out first.” He nodded and I then noticed he didn’t have his customary Icha Icha volume out. “Did you have another question?” 

“Why dish soap?” 

“That a very long, damning story, sir.” 

“All the best stories are, and cute little genin should share everything with their senseis.” 

“Is the story of why everyone hates Naruto the same?” 

Kakashi then met my gaze, finally. However, he wasn’t at all amused like I was expecting to be. If anything, his gaze seemed to have gotten colder. “Yes.” 

I inclined my head and clasped my hands behind my back. Another change of topic seemed best. I was still shit at dealing with the man. Truthfully, I hadn’t had a lot of interaction with adults since the Uchiha Massacre. I felt rusty. “Will there be anything else to do once we complete this mission?” 

“Yes,” he tilted his head at my open surprise. “I’m going to teach you three to tree-walk, I think.” 

“You’re, you’re going to try to teach us something specific.” 

“Yes.” 

“That’s… novel.” 

“And one day you will tell me why you have more dish soap than could be used in a life time.” He leaned down closer to me and in a quieter tone continued. “And why you’re so eager to give away your clan secrets to your teammates.” 

He was completely wrong, there. None of the shit the Uchiha had accumulated were worthy of being called secrets. Most of their posturing had been just that. My memories weren’t overwritten when that torture-illusion got messed up on me. Assuming that’s what had happened. I had both sets up memories, Uchiha Sasuke up until I was seven and Wyn Briggs up until I was twenty-two. I. He. They. Whatever. My leading theory with my scenario was that Sasuke was the reincarnation of Wyn. It was hard to refute or prove such a theory. Anyway. After Itachi’s psychotic break I became a mixture of the two males. 

I often identified more as Wyn, as someone older, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t Sasuke. It was simply that having so many years of being Wyn gave me a better perspective on Sasuke’s childhood and of what had been going on. After I got out of the hospital, I could look back on my life as Sasuke and I could see all that shit that kids always missed. I could see how screwed up the Uchiha really had been. 

Of course it certainly helped remembering a life where I was also in a powerful, duplicitous family. The whole reason behind my first death was over a power struggle among the family. It seemed like Itachi’s actions were from the same sort of issue. He and Father were feuding over something, likely inheritance, just like why my father and uncle had been fighting. It seemed awfully lucky that in this scenario, as Sasuke, I survived the in-fighting. 

As Wyn I had been prideful of my family, as Sasuke I had been just the same. But being a mixture now, being able to look back and identify just how ridiculous and fucked up both my families had been—yeah. I decided I was done with familial pride. I decided I was done with a lot of things. 

Considering that and Kakashi’s judging, one-eyed gaze, I smiled cheekily at him. “If I don’t consider them clan secrets, no one else has any right to argue that they are.” 

Kakashi continued to look unimpressed. “You’re a very worrisome student.” 

“Lies. But this was a good chat.” 

“We’re done!” Naruto bellowed, him and Sakura now crossing the store to us. 

“Sensei,” Sakura still hadn’t let up the judging tone she had started to use towards Kakashi when I first started glaring at the man. “Do we have another mission after this?” 

“Well, I was thinking since Sasuke-kun here has such an abundance of soap you three wouldn’t mind giving my nindogs a bath.” 

“You want us to use dish soap on your dogs.” 

“You have a problem with using your dish soap?” 

I stared at him for a moment, enjoying the quiet that my teammates miraculously let us maintain. “Dish soap is not a pet friendly substance. Besides, you mentioned tree-walking. Only Sakura has that down among the three of us.” 

“You started tree-walking,” if anything Kakashi seemed to droop. 

“Only yesterday,” Sakura chimed in. “But I haven’t started water-walking yet if you want to go over that.” 

Naruto scoffed. “Like he’s going to do anything other than stand there and watch us struggle.” Sakura and I both smiled at that. 

Kakashi casually tugged an Icha Icha volume out of his vest and opened it to a random page. “Water-walking by sundown tomorrow will be your current goal. Tree-walking for the boys by then. You three seem so eager to step up the pace, I feel obligated to oblige.” 

Naruto’s face scrunched up in displeasure. Conversely, Sakura was aiming a very calculating look at our jounin. “Are you really going to put more effort into our training?” 

Humming in faux thoughtfulness, Kakashi turned a page in his book. “Impress me by the end of the week and I’ll accept a C Rank for us to take.” 

“Alright!” Naruto jumped as he fist-pumped the air. “C Rank mission!” 

&&

The week was nearly over, but in that time we had been using every day to train as hard as we could. Our D Rank missions were fitted into the schedule as breaks, Tora missions aside. I was already planning to look into how to declaw a cat for the next time we had to hunt down the beast. 

I threw my arm over my eyes as I started to calm my breathing. Naruto was laying on his back as well, but he wasn’t sounding at all winded anymore. “Your stamina astounds me, Naruto.” He didn’t respond and when I dragged my arm off my face to look at him he was looking up at the evening sky with a worried expression. “What’s wrong?” 

“Sakura already went home.” 

“She did finish some time ago,” I trailed off when his face contorted into further worry. “Naruto.” 

“I don’t—I just. I don’t know.”

I pushed myself up on my elbows so I could get a better look at him. “Uh. Look, I’m smart when it comes to books. People? Not so much. I need you to spell out what’s wrong.” 

For a few minutes he didn’t say anything but kept staring at the darkening sky. “I don’t want to be alone tonight.” 

“Oh.” That seemed a rather dramatic confession to make. “Come home with me then.” 

Naruto’s whole body stilled, something weirdly noticeable when he hadn’t been moving much before. “Like… a sleep over?” 

“Or move in.” I shrugged and looked up to the sky as well. “Whichever. Just don’t bother me when I’m cleaning the bathrooms in the compound and we’ll be golden.” 

“Bathrooms?” Naruto finally moved to sit up as well. “All of them?” 

“You eat more ramen than your metabolism likely calls for. Let’s just accept that fact that awesome shinobi are supposed to have crazy quirks to keep them going. Kakashi has his porn.” I am an expert in deflection. 

“What does Sakura have?” 

“She’ll pick something up.” 

In a softer tone, “Are you’re serious about letting me move in?” 

“Yeah? I already named my condition.” 

“You’re so fucking weird.” 

“I’m ironically honest for a shinobi, is all. Do you want to get your stuff tonight or in the morning?” 

Naruto stood up, then slightly over me as he smiled painfully wide at me. “Morning.” 

“Good choice.” 

&&

Sakura had been doing so well, but now she was back to shrieking, only at both of us instead of just Naruto. “You’re living together?!” 

“If you were an orphan I’d invite you to live with us, too.” 

“I’m a girl!” 

“We’re still children. And team mates. That’s supposed to be an explanation for being close, right?” Unless I had gotten this shinobi dynamic all wrong. In fact now that I thought about it my mother and father here never hung around or had their former teammates over at all. Unless said teammates were already dead, which I honestly preferred over being wrong at this point. 

“Yes!” Naruto threw an arm around my neck and I felt my hands twitch uselessly at my sides. 

“But, but,” 

“When you’re older move in with us,” I didn’t mean to make it sound so much like an order, but Sakura only blushed in response, so I suppose that meant we could gloss over my slip. 

“All three of us can be a family!” Naruto jostled me slightly as he darted forward, but didn’t release me. Instead he wound his free arm around Sakura’s neck and pulled us both in a rather botched attempt of a hug. Assuming that his intention there was a hug. One could never be sure if Naruto didn’t understand how to do something or if he was ungracefully acting on instinct. It was an endearing trait. 

Kakashi shunshin’ed in a big cloud of smoke in front of the three of us. His sense of timing was truly the worst, but part of me was happy for the interruption. I still wasn’t sure where I was supposed to put my hands in this situation of maybe-hugging. Additionally, it was nice that he try to ask or start to mock us for our closeness, instead he just pushed on with getting us on task. “Today we are going on a C Rank mission.” 

Naruto quickly released us so that he could starting running towards the Hokage’s tower. “Naruto!” Sakura took after him first, fists already clenched with the intent to hurt him. “We’re supposed to go as a team,” She yelled after him. 

“You should really catch up to them.” I looked to Kakashi only for him to immediately use the body flicker jutsu again.

Right then. 

&&

“C Rank! C Rank! C Rank!” 

I smiled when Sakura quickly grabbed on Naruto and then gave him a quick jab in the stomach to shut him up before the Hokage. “This will be an escort mission to Wave. Do you three think you’re up for it?” Sakura hit Naruto even harder when he opened his mouth again and then she nodded at the Hokage with a solemn expression. I just rubbed at the back of my neck and watched as Sakura managed to still keep her hold on Naruto. The Hokage was still smiling at us though and he handed the mission scroll to Kakashi. 

“What the—it’s just a bunch of twerps!” Leaning heavily against the door way, an older man to a liberal sip of his alcohol. Disgusted was an understatement of how I felt towards the man. He was less contemptuous towards us than I was towards him with my expression. 

Maybe the second he was no longer our client the option of killing him would be open to us…? 

“You realize,” I began, smiling blandly, “That we twerps have been trained and raised to be killers for hire, yes?” 

Naruto gave a much more manic grin and pulled a kunai out of his coat pocket and made a show of spinning it by the ring around his finger. Sakura still had her hold on Naruto, but allowed his antics with only a deep sigh at us. Kakashi, smartly, herded us out of the room after that. We were to meet Tazuna at a gate in twenty minutes. 

Once we had left the tower, Sakura pushed Naruto towards me and waved a hand at us. “Make sure he packs right.” 

“What about you?” 

She arched a brow at Naruto. “What about me?” 

He pointed the kunai at her with squinting eyes. “You’re going to pack girly stuff.” 

Her face turned red, not with embarrassment, but anger. “We went over this a week ago! I know what to pack! You keep insisting on all that instant ramen!” 

“Instant food packs would be saving us the time of hunting and,” Sakura turned her glare on me and I let myself trail off. 

“And you, you don’t NEED to bring emergency soap!” 

“But motel bathrooms are vile,” she let out an inarticulate shriek of anger to interrupt me. 

“We won’t be staying in any motels or inns or anything like that! We’ll be camping! That means tents! And nutritional food!” Well at least she was bringing Naruto back into her blaming fest. 

“Ramen is nutritious!” Naruto turned to me, pleadingly. I winced in response and made a so-so gesture with my hand. 

Kakashi managed to make turning the page in his book loud enough to catch out attention. “How about you three go pack, now, and I’ll check over your packs at the gate? Your time is running out.”


	5. the shittiest chapter

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There comes a time, after no less than seven failed starts, where you hiss out “fuck it” and scare the poor guy sitting next to you at the café and then you copy and paste the latest, shitty, attempt into the window for Ao3’s new chapter page. This is that time, darlings.
> 
> I don’t know what it is about this arc, but it is evil and tedious and I’m just going to stop stressing out about this silly fic. Let's just get past the Wave arc which I've vomited into this entire chapter. Just... let's move on.

Tazuna looked over his shoulder, eyeing us three with equal parts confusion and suspicion. I sneered when he tilted back his large bottle while still staring us, he then flinched and ended up spilling some of his sake down his front. 

“Sasuke, don’t unleash killing intent at the client,” Kakashi tutted, like I was a puppy too cute to properly scold. 

Instead of being humbled at Kakashi helping him, Tazuna angled himself so that he was able to walk and look at us at the same time. He had very judging eyes, I thought. “What’s the story with you three? Do all ninja start so young?” 

“Or younger,” Kakashi said so very casually that it made Sakura focus on him. 

I looked from her to Tazuna with a judging look of my own. “Childhood ends when you learn about death.” 

Naruto laughed at me. “Yeah, yeah! And we’re friends with Death! We’ll kill anyone who comes after you, Tazuna! It’s our job!” 

“Right,” I motioned to Naruto who was bouncing with each step he took. “We’re here to kill those in your path. We have been taught how. So, you need to stop doubting us.” 

“Ma,” Kakashi dragged the sound out, making sure he had all our attention and had killed some of the tension that had built up when he turned the page of his book. “We shouldn’t run anyone needing to be killed at all. This is a simple C rank. Right, customer?” He looked up from his book to do one of his weird eye-smiles at Tazuna and the lout started to tremble. All three of us genin narrowed our eyes when the man stuttered out an agreement to Kakashi’s words. 

&&&

“I have a plan.” Both Naruto and Sakura looked at me with these wary, scared expressions and I decided that from then on that when I would say that phrase I wouldn’t say it like I was likewise terrified. Nonetheless, I continued on in a very quiet, hesitant tone. “One of you should… stay here and watch over Kakashi and the clients. And the other and I will,” I waved a hand towards the door Inari had run out of. “Go and murder Gato and his goons.” 

Sakura was not impressed. “That is a terrible plan.” Then she grimaced and looked down to the table we sat at intently. She didn’t apologize though and after a few seconds she looked back up at me, determined and angry as she had been the past few days. “It’s a really terrible plan, Sasuke-kun.”

“I agree. It’s a terrible plan. But we only have until Zabuza recovers to do something definitive, and Kakashi will be out for at least that long and it may end badly again if we go up against him. If someone is going so far to hire such a, a heavy hitter, then they won’t have any other ninja. Just, you know, the usual thugs. The non-chakra trained thugs. So I think now is the time to strike.” I thought of Chase and the rest of the men who worked for my uncle and father once upon a time. “We can kill them,” and once I said that I was having a grand epiphany. Gato’s thugs wouldn’t have the sort of training we had. They wouldn’t be able to fucking touch us if we didn’t want them to. Naruto could become an army and I could spit fire. We would slaughter them. Sakura was looking up at me again confused, but Naruto had an enthused look. I focused on Naruto. “We kill the thugs and Gato, shit will be fine.” 

“Don’t cuss.” 

I ignored Sakura and watched as Naruto nodded. “I’ll do it. I’ll go with you.” 

Sakura heaved a sigh, but there was a smile tugging at her lips when I allowed myself to look at her. It was really nice that she was back to agreeing with me. After the run in with Zabuza, rather, after I had urged them both to intervene in Kakashi and Zabuza’s fight and it ended so badly, she had seemed reluctant to listen to anything I or even Naruto suggested. She had quickly taken the reigns while Naruto and I stood over Kakashi, watching blood leak from his skull where the flat of Zabuza’s blade had hit him. 

It had been a double knock out, thankfully, but then Sakura had told us that the Mist hunter nin that took Zabuza’s body had been a fake. She had also ordered us to drag Kakashi and a traumatized looking Tazuna to his house. Kakashi was still unconscious, would be for a long while, and likely vomiting and suffering ill effects when he did, so Sakura had taken command of us. 

&&&

“I may have overreacted.” I frowned when Naruto only continued to stare at me with ridiculously wide eyes. I wanted to reach out and just cover his face with my hands. Just for a few moments, just until I could recollect myself. “They were saying things, okay?” 

Naruto’s face scrunched up, even more incredulous which was very much an accomplishment. “They were taunting you.” 

“Yes,” and had somehow managed to use some key phrases, no matter the different language, that set me off. “You killed some of the thugs, too.” 

Naruto stiffly pointed to a nearby corpse. “Some of my clones threw some kunai at random.” I nodded and Naruto pointed back at me. “You… Sasuke, you used a rock at one point.” 

“Yes.” 

“Oh man,” Naruto rubbed at the back of his neck and looked away from me finally. “Sakura is not going to be happy.” His expression turned even more pained. “Kakashi won’t be happy.” 

“But we solved the problem. Assumedly,” I turned, searching through the corpses around us. “One of these is Gato, right? Tsunami said he was short and bald.” 

“No, yeah, I got him.” Naruto pointed further down the street. 

“I think we need to collect his head.” 

“What?” 

“The head. When we carry out assassinations, we’re supposed to collect the head as proof.” 

Naruto made a keening noise and I looked back to see he was sending me an alarmed look. I was not going to be happy if this became a new habit of his. “I thought this was a bodyguard mission!”

“Gato was the only threat. The ninja that hurt Kakashi won’t come after us again without Gato to pay them. Ergo, Tazuna and the rest of the bridge builders are safe.”

“But do we really need Gato’s head?”

“I want to give the head to that whiney kid.” Naruto’s right eye twitched. “I think he would appreciate it, and it really would be the professional thing to do. Possibly.” There was no such thing as too much reassurance that a threat had been dealt with, especially when it left someone as distraught and annoying as Tsunami’s child was. I know his name started with an I. “Maybe we should collect all their heads.” 

“WHAT?” Naruto threw his arms up. “I officially don’t understand anything that is happening!” 

I tried to be reasonable for him. “What if there are bounties on the heads? We could capitalize on that.” 

“Sasuke!” 

I threw my hands up, ignoring the loud splat of something falling off my arm. “I don’t understand why you’re so freaked out right now!” 

“You’re covered in blood and guts!” 

“It’s not mine!” I took a deep breath in and out as I lowered my arms. “We’ve dealt with the easy stuff. The mission is as good as secured. We just need to wait it out until the bridge is complete. Or if Kakashi’s condition worsens.” I watched as Naruto likewise took a few calming breaths in and out. “Sakura said he should be waking up tomorrow.”

&&

Three days passed and none of us yet had gotten around to telling Kakashi that we dealt with Gato. I couldn’t tell if Kakashi somehow already knew about what we had done or if he really was too busy vomiting and experiencing vertigo. Sakura was sure it was the latter and had pulled Naruto and I outside the day after Kakashi had finally woken up. “Sasuke, you’re going to the bridge with Tazuna today. Naruto, you’re going to keep Kakashi distracted or make sure he’s sleeping.” 

“Naruto, can I have some clones to help with the bridge construction?” 

Naruto was already making clones for me as he watched Sakura made notes for herself in a small notebook. “What are you going to do?” 

“I am going into town to speak with some of their elders. Tazuna gave me their names and they’re supposed to meet me at the center of town.” She looked up from her notes. “Naruto, I want two clones as well. If something happens one can dispel and you guys will know.” 

Naruto and I both frowned. “Are you expecting something to happen?” 

“We don’t know if Zabuza and that fake Mist hunter nin are still about. It would just be smarter to be safe.” She glared when I raised a brow at her. Two clones weren’t enough to make up for the fact she was still the weak link of the team, but it seemed she knew that. “It’s effort.” 

“I didn’t say anything.” 

She sighed in a long suffering manner. “Also, Tazuna told me this morning they’re going to name the bridge Nana, after us.” 

Naruto’s eyebrows sot up to press against his head band. “For team seven?” 

“Yes. Don’t let Kakashi know. Tazuna and his family are already too happy with us, I want to wait until he finds out what we did.” 

“But we completed the mission,” I argued. “Why not let him know? Then I can at least stop worrying over what he does know.” 

She matched my frown with equal intensity. “We disobeyed his orders when he got hurt. He could have us sent back to the academy for interfering with his fight when he told us to guard Tazuna. And then while he’s out we continued to make decisions on our own.” 

“He never said to not help him and Naruto left clones around Tazuna. We could argue our way out of being send back to the academy, at the very least. Probation, maybe a new sensei, but, still. Not as big a problem.” 

“Argue to who?” Sakura stomped her foot and Naruto flinched back from her. “They don’t put us before a council. We don’t make any sort of appeal—they just send us off to our punishment!” 

I blinked. “Oh. So, no perks for being the last Uchiha?” 

“More like they’d try harder to beat obedience into your head,” she froze and tensed as she soon as she had said that. When I nodded to her words, accepting them, she relaxed. “I’m sorry, but… we are in serious trouble here.” 

“Wouldn’t taking care of Gato have helped us, though?” Naruto turned his head between us a few times looking nervous. “We were pro, uh, provictive.” 

“Proactive,” I tried to smile at him. 

Sakura sighed again. “It’s fifty/fifty I think. Could help us, could hurt us.”

“I think my cute little students are worrying too much.” All of us, even Naruto's clones, flinched at Kakashi’s sudden appearance. 

I tilted my head back to see he was standing behind me. “Should you be moving around so fast?” 

“Probably not,” he admitted despite looking relaxed. “But I think I’ve let you three worry enough. All I need to know is if you’ve learned from this mission.” 

“That’s incredibly lax,” I hissed when Sakura sent a quick jab into my arm. “I mean, yes. Sakura is our new lead, but before all we listen to you. We don’t help unless you say to.” 

“Hm.” Kakashi stepped around me so that he could look at us all properly. “I suppose that’ll be enough for now.” 

Naruto smiled brightly. “Really?” 

“Oh, we’ll be running teamwork drills when we get back until you’re all cursing me, but, yes.” 

We could accept that.

“Also, Sasuke, from now on don’t give decapitated heads to children. Inari has been keeping it in his closet and the smell is awful.” 


	6. Togetherness or something

When Kakashi arrived, he heaved a deep sigh at us. I could tell it was the wardrobe change that had bothered him. “I made it official, or as best as for the moment,” I kindly told Kakashi. “They’re part of my clan now.” 

“You made your teammates honorary Uchiha so that they could your wear clan armor.” 

Naruto took a surprisingly accurate stance sword stance even as he slashed his arm down in place of a blade. “We are officially members of the great Uchiha clan!” They weren’t actually, officially, members, but I fashioned some legal-seeming papers and decided to keep saying it was so until it was. 

Sakura was bouncing in place, the thick braid she’d set her hair in waving behind her as she did. “There wasn’t a lot that would fit us but we’ve already gotten used to training and wearing them while fighting.” She still wore red, at least as the armor was red, but it was a far darker shade than the dress she used to wear. She wore grey shorts and a tight, long sleeved black shirt that covered her palms. The breast plate was something she had fussed over for some time, declaring it unflattering for her form, but after I had repeated how we were all children, several times, she gave up and now wore it without complaint along with the plates strapped to her arms and forelegs. On all of us, the armor looked like simplified versions of ANBU armor. 

“I was gone for four days,” Kakashi stressed. “Four. Days.” He had clearly thought, when he first agreed to take a short mission, that we would be fine to train on our own. He hadn’t made any arrangements for a substitute trainer after all.

“We’re going be so badass!” Naruto bellowed before flexing his arms. He still wore an orange jacket, not his old one but a plain, solid dark orange jacket. After Sakura’s screeching he’d agreed to set his armor on top of the jacket so his shoulders and arms were mostly hidden and the orange was therefore not as noticeable as before. His orange pants he had switched out for dark grey canvas pants like I now had and taped them to his legs before setting more armor plates on top of his legs. 

Out of the three of us, I wore the most armor, but we figured that may change as we grew. I had a long sleeved black top like Sakura, but the armor I had included straps that crossed over my chest to secure the paulrdons to my shoulders. The rest of my armor was like theirs, mimicking the ANBU style, but the pauldrons had reminded me of medieval armors I used to see all the time in the museums. 

Kakashi shoved the forms into Sakura’s hands. “Here. Chuunin Exams. Tomorrow. Academy. Have fun.” Predictably, he vanished right after speaking. 

Sakura held the papers up so we could read them over her shoulders. She’d had a literal bounce in her step ever since we’d cobbled our new outfits together. Each of us had their Uchiha emblem on the armor we had on our upper right shoulders, but Sakura and Naruto also had their own clan symbols just under the fan, the Haruno’s white circle and the Uzumaki swirl. 

The fact that we had only learned about the Uzumaki clan and their significance to Konoha was from the Uchiha library was incredibly suspicious but not something we had focused on much. Rather, Naruto had rushed to distract us after Saukra had read out loud from the book she found how one Mito Uzumaki had had the Kyuubi sealed into her. 

Sakura and I had shared a look at the time and decided to go along with Naruto’s wishes. When he wanted to tell us, he would. First and foremost we were a team, before anything else about us or our pasts. Besides, I had no room to argue since I had absolutely no intention of telling them about my former life. 

Ever since Naruto had advised Sakura to just tell her parents she was staying at another girl’s house she was able to spend the night with us. Naruto was insistent that our “bond” was indestructible now but both of them still ended up acting very uncomfortable and shy once the sun would set. I mean, yes, they were both cute—especially wearing my clan clothing—but we were still kids. Naruto’s voice still cracked on occasion. They had no business worrying about anything like that. 

Maybe once we were older though… it seemed like it would be inevitable given how close we were with each other. 

Naruto drew me out of my thoughts, asking “Should we be happy about the exams or annoyed he bailed on training us again?” 

“Both!” Sakura declared and then moved to loop her arms through Naturo’s and my own. So long as the sun was up, both Sakura and Naruto would go out of their way make sure we all had physical contact. “Should we go back to the compound and keep training?” 

“Maybe we should grab food?” I asked. 

Naruto immediately hollered for ramen and we agreed easily enough. We had only just ordered when someone made a choking sound behind us. Standing with one arm still up to hold up the curtain that separated the street from the ramen stall was Umino-sensei. “Naruto?! What are you wearing?” 

“Iruka-sensei!” Naruto jumped off his stool and struck a heroic pose. “We look badass, right?” 

“Uh, yeah,” Umino moved to the seat next to Naruto and they both sat down. I looked forward to watch the ramen chef cook while Umino questioned Naruto as subtly as he could about whether or not Naruto knew the implications of wearing clan armor. 

Sakura, who sat between Naruto and I, was all smiles as she leaned into Naruto’s side to look at Umino better. “We’re honorary Uchiha now. At first we just didn’t want to spend money on new gear when Sasuke had so much laying around but this suits us well.” 

“Yeah, yeah! We’re going to be together forever and be way better than those lousy sannin!” 

Umino was quiet for a long moment, watching us, while the chef placed our bowls in front of us and finally asked Umino for his own order. “Miso, please, and, just,” Our former teacher took a deep breath and when I chanced a look at him he was smiling like a proud father at us all. It was hard to fight back a sneer at the man. Surely he wasn’t that familiar with my teammates. “I’m really happy you guys are friends now.” 

“Of course we’re friends now!” Sakura tapped her chopsticks on the rim of her spicy shoyu ramen. I was glad she’d stopped the diet nonsense but the smell of the chili oil was burning my nose. “We’re the Great Team Nana, you know.” 

Naruto cackled. “We have a bridge named after us and everything!”

“Though I was soft-banned from the area where the bridge is.” 

Umino’s confusion returned. “Soft-banned? And how did you get a bridge named after you guys?” 

“It’s not an enforced ban since there were mixed reactions concerning the gift of,” Naruto let out a loud, forced laugh to cut me off while Sakura quickly launched into a brief, incredibly censored version of our C rank mission. I decided to keep quiet for the rest of the conversation. People outside our team were still awkward for me to deal with. I understood tact just fine, but we were all killers. Talking about decapitated heads should be like discussing the weather. 

As Umino was only eating one bowl, he gave a slight bow to us when he paid and stood up. Sakura and I would be staying until Naruto had at least another four bowls. “I admit I wasn’t sure if you guys would be ready for the exams, but seeing how much you guys have changed just in your approach… I’m now confident your team will do fine.” 

“We’ll ace it, Iruka-sensei!” 

Umino laughed and slapped Naruto’s back.

I narrowed my gaze and wondered just how close the two were. I hadn’t paid much attention to the teacher when in the academy and even less to his interactions with the other students. Most of the time all he did was reiterate what our assigned reading had been. 

It was only after the chuunin had left that I noticed Sakura had placed a hand on my arm, as if to hold me in place. “What?” 

Sakura shook her head with a quiet chuckle. “It’s nothing. Say, once Naruto is done eating can I practice healing cuts on you?” 

“Why me? I thought you didn’t like hurting me.” 

“You don’t have a natural healing factor like Naruto does.” 

Naruto laughed, choking on ramen broth as he did. “Also,” he cleared his throat and then started again. “Also you were being super creepy and glare-y again. All that jealousy can’t be good for you, you know.” 

“I wasn’t jealous of anyone. Why would I be? And why would that warrant letting Sakura slice up my arms?”

Sakura laughed slid her arm into mine. “Just focus on us, Sasuke-kun.” 

 

&&&

 

Keeping close together, we slipped up to the third floor, ignoring the ploy that another genin team was assisted some undercover chunnin with and, like actual ninja, attempting to be subtle. Of course, once we reached and entered the right classroom, all our efforts to go unnoticed and get through the test were thrown aside because the Yamanaka heir had caught sight of us and howled my name. 

“SASUKE-KUN!” She made to thrown herself at me, then jolted to a stop just a few feet in front of us. She reared back with her teeth barred, a look that left Sakura snickering. “What are you wearing? And why are you all matching?!” 

“Traditional Uchiha war armor,” Sakura leaned onto my right shoulder, pillowing her chin on my shoulder with her hands as she smiled at Yamanaka. It was for the best as I thought placing her chin right on the pauldron would have been uncomfortable. Unlike the other rookie genin, we looked like many of the older, foreign genin who had adjusted their wardrobe to ensure they looked part of a set, part of a team. The Konoha rookies looked too individualized and stood out because of it. 

The Yamanaka heir let out a shrill squeal of anger and wordlessly pointed between us. Her face seemed to just get more and more red. 

Inuzuka made a show of sniffing at the air and leaning towards them. “You guys all smell like each other, like… really close.” He looked more confused than upset over this but his words did cause Yamanaka to drop her pointing hand. She had gone from furious to shock immediately. 

I looked to Naruto with a raised brow. We really didn’t have to be putting up with talking to them seeing as how we were clearly taking things more seriously—and also I just didn’t like any of them. Naruto pressed his lips together tightly and raised both of his brows in response. The “we have to talk to them” message was obvious in his eyes but with his mouth scrunched up like that I thought he was holding himself back from saying anything, or possibly laughing. He probably shared my desire to not be bothering with the other genin. 

The Nara heir broke the tense silence and brought my attention back to other children. “Clan armor is supposed to only be worn by clan members.” 

Naruto and Sakura were both beaming brightly while I nodded at the shadow jutsu user. “And I have declared them as mine, now.” Taking in the rest of our graduating year’s shocked expressions, I quickly conceded, “As of a week ago, rather.” 

Naruto moved to my other side, letting his hand fall heavily against my back as he leaned close as well. “We’re all part of the same clan now!” 

“I wrote up some papers officiating it and everything.” I was technically a legal adult and the clan head—and clans made their own rules. All we had to do was keep bullshitting that it was legit and it would be. Probably. In any case if someone brought some actually official papers to me I’d sign them on the spot. 

The other genin stared at us with a variety of confused expressions, but it was Nara who picked up the conversation, again. “You’re insane.” 

I smiled at him. 

“Troublesome.”

“The best things in life always are,” Sakura absently remarked, moving off my shoulder only to cut her way through the grouping. “Come on, boys!” 

“Coming!” Naruto shouted, grinning widely and dragging me along with him. 

As we moved away from our year mates, an older boy with silver hair and glasses passed us. He wore a worried expression that made me think of when my sister was trying to trick sympathy out of others or trick someone into offering what she wanted from them. He went to talk to the other genin and we settled in amongst the chunnin of the other villages, comfortably, until we were told to move seats by the proctor. 

First exam: ten questions. The final question would be verbally given later on. Blah blah blah. A lot of the instruction was given on cheating. I met eyes with Sakura and we exchanged smirks. Though they clearly wanted us to cheat, the test wasn’t as hard as the hype would imply. I knew Sakura could ace the test without cheating and I was sure Naruto could at least answer half of them on his own. 

That didn’t stop Naruto from making a show of refusing to quit while also outing the fact that it was our wills that were being tested. He loudly declared Ibiki had asked his question already and since they remained, Naruto asserted that they should start the next phase. 

I looked to Sakura and was amused to see she looked just as offended as Ibiki did as they stared at Naruto. They both quietly seethed the same way. I supposed that was a mark of Sakura having matured. That or she would excel in interrogation when the time came for it, thought to be honest I had been assuming that would be my role. 

Before Ibiki could say anything, the windows were smashed in as a woman in a trench coat landed theatrically. 

First and foremost I noticed was that the woman wasn’t wearing a bra and with her bust size that had to be very painful. I looked to Sakura and found the seething from before was replaced with the sort of fuming look she used to have when talking about the Yamanaka heir. 

“Ibiki! There’s double the number there’s supposed to be of victims!” 

The scarred man shrugged and settled back into the chair at the desk. “It’s your problem now, then.” 

A painfully wide smile slowly spread on her face as she scanned those of us remaining. There had to be around fifty still in the auditorium. “Least that should be easily done. Okay! Follow me brats!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have issues writing in order, so I have been working on this a lot, just on later chapters... I can at least promise some trippy times during the Forest to make up for my slowness in updating. Well. Chapter 8 will be trippy, because it's been done for a while now, but chapter 7 I'm only half way done with. Sorry. I treat this story as a joke or stress relief sort of thing...


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